12 interesting facts about Raghuram Rajan

The government and the RBI are working together to tackle the country's economic problems but there is no "magic wand" to fix them, said Raghuram Rajan, who will take over as central bank governor next month.

"We do not have a magic wand to make the problems disappear instantaneously, but I have absolutely no doubt we will deal with them," said Rajan after he was named as a replacement for outgoing governor Duvvuri Subbarao.

As Raghuram Rajan gets ready to take over one of India’s most powerful posts, here are some interesting facts about Rajan you would like you know…

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Raghuram Rajan will take over as the next governor just in time for the next mid-quarter policy review on September 18.

Rajan will become the 23rd governor of the Reserve Bank.

After two IAS officers –Y V Reddy and Subbarao – at the helm, the RBI governor’s post now goes to an economist. The other economist to be appointed as governor was Bimal Jalan.

One of the youngest governors, Rajan shares a common factor with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was also 50-years-old when he became the RBI governor. 

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Raghuram Rajan was appointed as the youngest-ever Economic Counselor and Director of Research (chief economist) at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from October 2003 to December 2006.

Rajan is credited for predicting the 2008 global financial crisis.

Admitting that he is poor in Hindi, he said he started learning Hindi in 7th grade and of course passed the examination. He plans to master the national language soon.

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After being abroad for most part of his career, it was “duty towards the country” that drew Rajan back to India in 2012. He hopes to put “India back on the strong-growth path”.

Rajan, who was a gold medalist in IIT Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad, was featured on Foreign Policy magazine's Top 100 Global Thinkers list in 2010 and 2012.

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In a 2011 poll in The Economist, Rajan was ranked by his peers as the economist with 'the most important ideas for a post-crisis world'.

After two governors from Andhra Pradesh, Y V Reddy and D Subbarao, it is the return of a Tamil Brahmin to the high profile post.

Raghuram Rajan’s younger brother, Mukund Rajan is the Group Spokesperson and Chief Ethics Officer of the Tata group.